Dinamita y mineros

Security in this city is really tight. There is police at every major intersection, and a security guard with a big gun in front of every bank. Several days in a row, we've seen riot police with shields, guns, helmets, and tear gas capsules.
Today we finally had a chance to see what exactly the police were preparing for. As we strolled leisurely down the main square of La Paz, enjoying our day off (nothing in particular planned that day), we witnessed a major left-wing demonstration. It had all the predictable components: Che Guevarra flags, propaganda leaflets, and patriotic songs on the radio - just like the good old days (or something).

The nearby streets were blocked for traffic and it seemed like something was about to go down. In fact, there was a lot of noise from firecrackers (or maybe it was guns?), and some more loud BOOM noises in the distance. A few times we heard the word dinamita. It's hard to assess the danger of the situation in a new country without proper language skills, so we had to rely on looking around and making a judgement call based on people's facial expressions, and what they were doing. For the time being it seemed like nobody was worried or going anywhere, and the police were not agitated at all.

Firecrackers and dynamite - what can go wrong? It could be an everyday occurrence in La Paz.

We slowly walked away from the disturbance, and for a while everything seemed OK, back to the usual chaos of La Paz, with lots of honking, exhaust fumes, and yellers from the microbuses. But apparently the demonstration was going the same way as we were, and the Che Guevarra flags were getting closer and closer, and so were the big booms of dynamite explosions. It's difficult to keep cool and composed when big explosions approach. While firecrackers were visible and small, it was hard to tell how close the dynamite explosions were. We asked a few people if it was safe to be around here, and they said something like "No peligroso, tranquillo, tranquillo, as long as you keep your distance". But at this point, even the Bolivian onlookers were backing away and their faces turned from uninterested to worried.

Dynamite ain't no joke, so we went on side streets away from danger. No-one was really running at this point, just backing away continuously, and the traffic was a mess (more than the usual chaos here, as police frantically tried to redirect traffic away from the demonstration).



Just to clarify: the girl in the video is an Austrian au pair we met that day, who is babysitting the Bolivian child from a rich family (the child is also in the video). Around 1:43 in the video is a dynamite explosion.

On our way back a couple of hours later, the taxi driver said the area was still blocked off, and the police used some tear gas on the protesters (with my limited Spanish he may have been saying that this is what happens sometimes). Apparently the protesters were miners, and the unrest was tied to upcmoing elections, where Evo Morales may or may not be reelected.

Overall, it was a scary, but exciting day. I can totally see how some journalists like covering war zone stories.